BROOKLYN’S
First doses of COVID vaccine
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The fi rst COVID-19 vaccines
arrived at New York
City hospitals on Dec. 14, kicking
off a historic effort to immunize
New Yorkers in the
months ahead.
“We now begin, today, the
largest vaccination effort in
the history of New York City,”
de Blasio said at his press
briefi ng. “This will be remembered
as the day where the
largest mobilization ever was
undertaken to protect the people
of this city, the largest vaccination
effort in our history.”
Doses of the vaccine by
pharmaceutical companies
Pfi zer and BioNTech arrived
from a Michigan factory
straight to Big Apple hospitals,
where healthcare workers
were fi rst in line to get
their shots against the highlycontagious
virus.
Critical care nurse Sandra
Lindsay at Long Island Jewish
Medical Center in Queens
was the fi rst person in the city
to be injected with the vaccine
Monday morning.
The following day, an NYU
Langone-Brooklyn nurse,
45-year-old Tara Qaranta, was
the fi rst frontline healthcare
worker to receive it in Brooklyn.
“I feel relieved,” said Quaranta,
a resident of Staten Island
who works as an emergency
department nurse at the
Sunset Park hospital. “I feel
like this is a light at the end of
a really dark tunnel.”
Quaranta received the vaccination
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at 1 pm on Dec. 15,
marking a milestone for the
healthcare worker and her
colleagues.
“It’s a nice moment. It’s a
big moment for us,” she said.
“We all worked through this
pandemic together — as a
team. I think it’s really important
for me to get this vaccine
to continue working, doing
what we do to care for people.”
LaRay Brown, the Chief Executive
Offi cer of One Brooklyn
Health System, which
encompasses Brookdale Hospital,
Kingsbrook Jewish
Medical Center and Interfaith
Hospital, said they’d already
given the vaccine to over 100
medical workers.
“We’ve already inoculated
at least 130 staff members, so
it’s clear that our people are
stepping up to help,” she said.
“We’re very grateful to have
received the vaccine — many
of our staff live in the communities
of Brooklyn that
we serve, so the more of our
staff that takes the vaccine,
the more they can not only
protect themselves and their
families but their neighbors
in the Brooklyn community
as well.”
The shipments of some
73,000 initial doses hit fi ve
hospitals on Dec. 14, followed
by 37 facilities the next day,
and another two on Dec. 16.
Those vaccinations were then
administered to healthcare
workers during the following
week-and-a-half, according
to the city’s Health Commis-
NYU Langone Health/Joe Carrotta
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